You can fly a drone over people under Part 107 when the people are directly participating in the flight, have qualifying overhead protection, or the aircraft and operation meet Category 1, 2, 3, or 4 requirements. An FAA waiver can authorize a departure from specified rules. A Remote Pilot Certificate alone does not permit flight over bystanders, and a brief crossing is still an operation over people.
The practical question is twofold: does this aircraft qualify, and does this flight fit the conditions? Check both before accepting a job that requires flying above a sidewalk, work crew, event audience, or occupied road. The starting rule is 14 CFR § 107.39.
On This Page
- Who counts as a person under the flight?
- Which operations-over-people category applies?
- Crowds, sustained flight, and moving vehicles
- What documentation should you check?
- How to request an FAA waiver
- Make the route match the permission
Who counts as a person under the flight?
The FAA treats flight directly above any part of a person as an operation over people, regardless of duration. Crossing someone's outstretched arm counts. Flying beside people is different, but the route must still account for where a loss of control could carry the aircraft. See the definitions in the FAA's Part 107 waiver guidance.
Two exceptions in § 107.39 apply before you reach the category rules:
- Direct participation: the person is involved in operating the aircraft. The FAA's examples include the remote pilot, person manipulating the controls, visual observer, and crew necessary for flight safety.
- Qualifying protection: the person is beneath a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle that provides reasonable protection against the falling aircraft.
A customer, actor, construction worker, or wedding guest does not become flight crew just by agreeing to be filmed. Likewise, telling everyone that a drone is coming does not by itself satisfy the direct-participation exception. Assign actual operational roles and brief the people performing them. These distinctions follow FAA Advisory Circular 107-2A, Chapter 8.
Assess the protection itself. A roof that would reasonably stop the aircraft and a lightweight canopy are not interchangeable simply because both provide shade. A moving car is subject to the separate vehicle rule discussed below.
This article addresses U.S. civil small-drone flights under Part 107, generally involving aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds at takeoff, including attachments. Category eligibility does not remove the other obligations in Part 107: pilot qualification and recency, registration, visual line of sight, safe operation, and applicable airspace restrictions still matter. Airspace authorization answers a separate question from permission to fly over people.
Which operations-over-people category applies?
The categories describe aircraft eligibility and operating conditions. They are not additional grades of Remote Pilot Certificate.
Category comparison for flight planning
| Category | Aircraft basis | What changes the flight plan? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maximum 0.55 lb, including all attachments; no exposed rotating parts that would lacerate skin on impact | Weigh the flight-ready aircraft. Sustained flight over an open-air assembly requires the specified Remote ID compliance. |
| 2 | Performance-based injury limits, accepted declaration of compliance, and category label | Verify the eligible configuration. Sustained flight over an open-air assembly requires the specified Remote ID compliance. |
| 3 | Performance-based injury limits, accepted declaration of compliance, and category label | No flight over open-air assemblies. Other overflight is restricted by site access, notice, and sustained-flight conditions. |
| 4 | Part 21 airworthiness certificate and applicable operating limitations | The limitations must allow the operation; maintenance and recordkeeping requirements also apply. |
Source basis: FAA Operations Over People General Overview and Part 107, Subpart D, checked September 7, 2026. The flight-planning column translates those requirements into practical checks.
Category 1: check weight and rotating parts together
The 0.55-pound maximum applies at takeoff and throughout the operation. Count the installed battery, guards, lights, Remote ID equipment, and every other attachment. An advertised bare-aircraft weight does not establish the weight of your setup.
The second condition is independent: exposed rotating parts must not be capable of lacerating human skin on impact. Adding something sold as a propeller guard does not automatically establish compliance. Category 1 does not require an FAA-accepted operations-over-people declaration of compliance; the remote pilot must establish that the aircraft meets the rule. Do not infer eligibility from a retail weight class alone. Part 107 registration still applies to these small aircraft.
Categories 2 and 3: hardware alone is insufficient
Both categories require the eligible aircraft to be on an FAA-accepted declaration of compliance and carry the appropriate label. A parachute or guard purchase, by itself, is not that acceptance. Check the declared configuration and the remote pilot operating instructions, including permitted modifications and any selectable operating modes.
The injury criteria differ. Category 2's eligibility rule uses injury severity equivalent to an impact from a rigid object transferring 11 foot-pounds of kinetic energy as the prohibited threshold; Category 3 uses 25 foot-pounds under § 107.130. Both also prohibit lacerating exposed rotating parts and safety defects. These are injury-performance criteria, not a pilot's permission to calculate a low flight speed and self-declare a heavier aircraft eligible.
The declaration process uses an FAA-accepted means of compliance to demonstrate eligibility. The accepted means describes how compliance is shown; the accepted declaration identifies the aircraft covered. Neither is a blanket waiver for any aircraft carrying similar equipment. Subpart D, §§ 107.155–107.160 establishes that distinction.
Crowds, sustained flight, and moving vehicles
A crowd creates a different restriction
An open-air assembly is assessed case by case. FAA guidance considers density and the circumstances; a concert audience or parade gathering may qualify, while a few separated pedestrians may not. Do not use an invented headcount threshold.
For Categories 1, 2, and 4, hovering, repeated passes, or circling above an assembly are examples of sustained flight. A single incidental transit during an unrelated point-to-point flight is treated differently. That distinction does not make an otherwise ineligible aircraft legal to fly over people. These explanations come from AC 107-2A, Chapter 8.
For sustained assembly overflight in those categories, the rules require compliance with § 89.110 or § 89.115(a): the standard Remote ID or broadcast-module route. A flight without Remote ID equipment inside an FAA-recognized identification area does not satisfy that specific assembly requirement. The FAA's Remote ID guidance explains the general compliance options. Remote ID identifies the flight; it does not itself establish an operations-over-people category.
Category 3 requires a closer look at the site
Under § 107.125, Category 3 cannot be used over an open-air assembly, even at a closed site. Away from assemblies, it permits overflight within or above a closed- or restricted-access site when everyone there is on notice that the aircraft may fly over them. Otherwise, it prohibits sustained flight over a person unless that person directly participates or has the protection specified by the rule.
For example, a controlled construction site with briefed workers may fit the first route. A public sidewalk beside it does not become part of the restricted site because the customer owns the building. Treat the boundary and access controls as real operating constraints.
Moving vehicles have their own conditions
Under § 107.145, operations over people inside moving vehicles must meet the applicable category requirements. Categories 1–3 then require either a closed- or restricted-access site with notice to all vehicle occupants there, or no sustained flight over moving vehicles. Category 4 follows its applicable operating limitations, which must not prohibit the operation.
A brief road crossing can therefore differ from following traffic, but the aircraft must still qualify. If your intended shot involves tracking a moving car from directly overhead on a public road, do not treat the brief-transit provision as permission for the entire shot.
What documentation should you check?
Before dispatch, assemble enough information to explain why the actual aircraft and route fit the selected category. The following packet is an operational recommendation; the documents and retention duties depend on the category and any waiver.
- For Category 1: record the flight-ready weight and the basis for meeting the rotating-parts requirement. A configuration photo and equipment list help prevent a later battery or accessory change from going unnoticed.
- For Categories 2 and 3: check the current accepted declaration, aircraft identification, label, operating instructions, and installed configuration. The FAA's operations-over-people overview links to its UAS Declaration of Compliance System. Preserve a reference to the acceptance you used and review relevant safety notices. A Remote ID declaration is a different record from an operations-over-people declaration.
- For Category 4: review the airworthiness certificate, approved limitations, and required maintenance and inspection records.
- For the flight: retain the applicable waiver and airspace authorization if used. Record the site boundary, notice arrangements, assembly assessment, planned route, and action if someone enters it.
Category 4 has explicit recordkeeping obligations in § 107.140. Maintenance, preventive-maintenance, and alteration entries must identify the work, completion date, and person performing it. Those records are retained for one year or until the work is repeated or superseded. Records of life-limited parts, inspection status, and applicable airworthiness directives must be retained and transferred with the aircraft when ownership changes. Required records must be available for FAA or authorized NTSB inspection.
That is different from saying every Part 107 pilot must keep an identical operations-over-people logbook. Match mandatory records to the operating authority, and use the additional flight packet to make checks repeatable.
How to request an FAA waiver
If the aircraft or flight cannot meet the applicable conditions, first consider changing the route, controlling access, or obtaining the shot while the area is empty. If the mission still requires a departure, identify the rule requiring relief, such as § 107.39 or § 107.145.
As of this check, the FAA waiver page directs new operational-waiver applications to the Aviation Safety Hub. Previously submitted applications remain in FAADroneZone; the airspace-authorization application process also remains there until further notice. The FAA aims to decide waiver requests within 90 days, but that is not a guaranteed turnaround. Filing is not permission to fly.
The FAA's July 2026 Aviation Safety Hub applicant guide gives the current sequence:
- Start a Part 107 Operational Waiver application and identify the responsible party.
- Describe the proposed operation, location, aircraft, and operating conditions. The answers determine which regulations appear in the request; review that selection carefully.
- Supply a concept of operations and supporting documents. Explain the aircraft configuration, route containment, people and vehicle exposure, crew roles, and response to failures.
- Complete the applicable safety evaluation and respond to FAA requests for information through the system.
- Read the issued certificate and its conditions before operating. Check the approved aircraft, activities, locations, dates, and limitations against the job.
An application or waiver issued to someone else does not establish authority for your mission. Use the FAA's current instructions and the terms of your own operating authority.
Make the route match the permission
Before launch, be able to answer three concrete questions: which provision permits this overflight, what establishes this aircraft's eligibility, and what will you do if the conditions change?
For a site inspection, that might mean keeping the route inside a controlled boundary and pausing when access control fails. For an event, it might mean choosing an oblique view from outside the audience's footprint. If the permission and the route do not match, change the flight before takeoff.
Sources
- 14 CFR Part 107: federal operating rules, including scope, § 107.39 exceptions, pilot obligations, and airspace requirements.
- Part 107, Subpart D: category eligibility, operating conditions, means of compliance, and declarations.
- FAA Operations Over People General Overview: agency summary of the four categories and assembly restrictions.
- 14 CFR § 107.120: Category 2 injury criteria and operating-instruction requirements.
- 14 CFR § 107.125: Category 3 access, notice, and sustained-flight restrictions.
- 14 CFR § 107.140: Category 4 airworthiness, operating limitations, and maintenance records.
- 14 CFR § 107.145: operations over occupants of moving vehicles.
- FAA AC 107-2A, Chapter 8: explanatory guidance on participants, protection, assemblies, and sustained flight; guidance does not replace the regulation.
- FAA Remote Identification of Drones: general Remote ID compliance routes and declaration distinctions.
- FAA Part 107 Waivers: current application destination, timing, and definitions of overflight.
- Aviation Safety Hub External User Guide, July 2026: official waiver-application steps and supporting documentation.
Recheck the current regulation, aircraft declaration status, operating instructions, Remote ID requirements, and FAA application process before planning a flight. Portal procedures and aircraft eligibility can change.
Last checked: September 7, 2026.